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EZ-Link
The EZ-Link card is a contactless smart card based on the Sony FeliCa and CEPAS smart card technology and used for the payment of public transportation fares in Singapore, with limited use in the small payments retail sector. It is promoted by Land Transport Authority and is valid on all travel modes including MRT, LRT, buses, Overground, Tramlink, river services across the zones. The company was established in 2001. A standard EZ-Link card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smartcard that can hold single tickets, period tickets and travel permits, which must be added to the card before travel. Passengers touch it on an electronic reader when entering and leaving the transport system in order to validate it or deduct funds. Cards may be "topped-up" by recurring payment authority, by online purchase, at credit card terminals or by cash, the last two methods at stations or ticket offices. The card is designed to reduce the number of transactions at ticket offices and the number of paper tickets. Usage is encouraged by offering substantially cheaper fares than with cash though the acceptance of cash is being phased out. On Singapore buses, cash is no longer accepted. LTA is the first public transport provider in Asia to accept payment by contactless bank cards, and the widespread adoption of contactless has been credited to this. LTA has been one of the Asia's largest contactless merchants, with around 1 in 10 contactless transactions in Singapore taking place on the TfS network. History The idea of a contactless smart card that could speed up passenger flow on buses and at MRT fare gates was first explored by TransitLink in 1994. Trials started in 1996 with 500 tertiary students using the card on selected buses and MRT stations. In 2000, this contactless smart card was officially named the ez-link card. Separate trials of the card on the MRT and LRT networks and on selected bus routes were also held that year. Originally, photo taking for the student concession cards began on 19 January 1999 and ended on 23 December 2000, for their replacement of Student Identification Pass into MOE School Smartcards which began in 2001 or 2002. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) introduced its pilot testing of the card to 100,000 volunteers on 26 February 2000. Initially for commuters who made at least five trips on MRT/LRT per week, the card was branded as the "Super Rider". As an incentive, volunteers were given 10% rebate off their regular fare during the one month period. Two further tests were made, with the scheme extending to frequent bus users on selected routes, on an invitation basis. The S$134.6 million contract was awarded to the ERG Motorola Alliance to supply 5 million cards and readers. *26 June 2002: Bus stamps will be issued to tertiary students and new Polytechnic Student ez-link card issued. *27 June 2002: Senior citizens will get their new EZ-Link cards *1 July 2002: National Serviceman EZ-Link cards are introduced *1 October 2002: Students will get their School Smartcard *13 October 2002: Standard Tickets replace single-trip magnetic cards It had a monopoly on public transportation fare payments in Singapore until September 2009, when the NETS FlashPay card, which had a monopoly over Electronic Road Pricing toll payments, entered the market for transportation payments (and vice-versa). EZ-Link cards are sold, distributed and managed by EZ-Link Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary of Singapore's Land Transport Authority. In October 2009, the new CEPAS EZ-Link card replaced the original EZ-Link card. A standard EZ-Link card was originally coloured light purple, before replacing it with blue, purple and orange before standardising the colour in 2014 to black. The EZ-Link also instituted a free card exchange exercise since 2015 for the expiring cards, where it was replaced by EZ-Charms of which is a special ez-link card in the form of a trinket. The Justice League EZ-Link cards took its precedence for cards expiring in 2015 (2010), 2016 (2011) and 2017 (2012). As part of TfS's "Future Ticketing Programme" the EZ-Link card platform is due to be replaced or supplemented by contactless payment card systems such as contactless credit and debit cards. The first stage of this was completed in June 2015. Concession Cards After the concession expires: *Primary School and Secondary School progressing to ITE will have their lifespan extended by 4 months. Student fares will continue to be deducted and the next monthly concession passes will be purchased. *ITE Nitec students will have their lifespan extended by 4 months. Adult fares will be deducted. *Secondary School students progressing to junior colleges will be further extended. *Secondary School students progressing to polytechnics will immediately expire, no extension will be given due to the larger supply of EZ-Link cards and the spares after being displaced from many people. They will be replaced by adult stored-value cards or account-based ticketing (ABT). *ITE Higher Nitec students whose cards is expiring on March 31, will have a grace period until April 17. There will be no extension. They will be replaced by adult stored-value cards or account-based ticketing (ABT). Uses of the card The card is commonly used in Singapore as a smartcard for paying transportation fees in the city-state's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), Light Rail Transit (LRT) and public bus services. The card also serves as a supplementary identification and concession card for *Primary school students *Secondary school students *Institute of Technical Education (ITE) students *Polytechnic students *Full-time national service personnel serving in the Singapore Armed Forces, Singapore Civil Defence Force and Singapore Police Force *Persons with disabilities *Lower-wage workers *Senior citizens who are over sixty years old. The system has since been expanded, with EZ-Link cards being used for payments in Singapore branches of McDonald's. Some schools in Singapore have also started to adopt the EZ-Link card as a way to mark the attendance of students and to pay for food served within the school campus. A system is similar to the Octopus card in Hong Kong, Oyster card in London and Touch 'n Go in Malaysia. On 3 December 2005, EZ-Link Pte Ltd announced that it was working with NETS to create a new hybrid card which will have the functions of both the EZ-Link card and the CashCard. This card would make it possible for one card to be used for payment on land transport in Singapore — ERP, bus, MRT, stalls and library. Work on this card was expected to be completed in 2008, and it is to replace the existing Ez-Link cards in 2009 as the existing EZ-Link cards are being phased-out. It can be used to pay for the Electronic Road Pricing since October 2009, with any upgrade to the in-vehicle unit requires payment of $150. The new generation IU or dual-mode IU for the different vehicle types was gradually introduced in September 2008. Motorists can still use the CashCard, and now can use EZ-Link and NETS FlashPay. On 17 October 2007, Starhub and EZ-Link Pte Ltd declared the start of a 6-month trial on phones with an embedded EZ-Link card, and before the NFC ez-link card do take their place in October 2014. NFC-enabled mobile phones can now be enhanced for payments on MRT, LRT and Public buses with the new EZ-Link NFC SIM. With the embedded ez-link purse, the new EZ-Link NFC SIM turns an NFC-enabled mobile phone into a device for ez-link transactions and works seamlessly with the existing ez-link contactless infrastructure – more than 30,000 ez-link acceptance points island-wide including shopping, retail, food & beverage and taxis. Users can simply turn on the NFC function in their NFC-enabled mobile phones to make payments similar to using an ez-link card. The phones include HTC, Huawei, LG, Samsung and Sony. Travel outside the zones If users travel outside the valid zones of their Travelcard (but within EZ-Link payment zones), any remaining fare due may be deducted from their pay-as-you-go funds (see below for how this is calculated). From 22 May 2011, EZ-Link Extension Permits (OEPs) were no longer required. Before that date, users who travelled outside the zones of their Travelcard, and whose journey involved the use of a National Rail service, were required to set an EEP on their Oyster card before travelling, to ensure that they paid for the extra-zonal journey. Sales EZ-Link cards can be purchased from different places: *MRT station control stations *General ticketing machines at MRT stations, which accepts banknotes, coins, credit and debit cards *YourStudent App Store *Online, by using the EZ-Link website *7-Eleven or Cheers The cards were originally free, but the refundable deposit of $3 was subsequently introduced and increased to $5 on the CEPAS cards since 2009. The cards can be fully refundable for 12 years, compared to 2 years (farecard revaluation until 2000) and 4 years (farecard revaluation until 2006). The deposit and any unused credit is refundable by posting the card to TfS; however, refunds are paid only by pounds sterling cheque, bank transfer to a UK bank account, credit to another EZ-Link card, or a TfS web account voucher, and refunds of over $15 require the customer to provide proof of identity and address. Refunds of up to $10 in credit plus the deposit may be claimed at London Underground ticket machines, which will pay the refund in cash. Reporting Touch-screen ticket machines report the last 30 journeys and last top-up amount. The same information is available as a print-out from ticket offices, and also on board the buses by request. The balance is displayed on some MRT barriers at the end of journeys that have caused a debit from the balance. EZ-Link Online service can also deliver regular Travel Statements via email. A complete 8-week 'touch' history can be requested from TfS: for registered and protected EZ-Link cards, TfS can provide the history for the previous 8 weeks, but no further back. EZ-Link online also displays up to 8 weeks of journey history. System for e-Payments (SeP) A trial to test the system was held from 29 August to 28 October 2008. The trial, which involved some 5,000 commuters, generated 1.7 million transactions and has confirmed that the system is ready for revenue service. Developed in-house by the LTA, SeP is built on the Singapore Standard for Contactless ePurse Application (CEPAS) which allows any smart card that complies with the standard to be used with the system and in a wide variety of payment applications. Trial participants are selected based on the criteria: #High public transport usage #Do not use non-transit applications or GIRO/Auto Credit Card top-up facilities (as these applications are not available during the trial) With SeP, commuters will be able to use cards issued by any card issuer for transit purposes as long as the card complies with the CEPAS standard and includes the transit application. Commuters can eventually use CEPAS-compliant cards for Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) payments in vehicles fitted with the new generation In-vehicle Unit (IU), Electronic Parking System (EPS) carparks and other electronic payment systems that support the CEPAS standard. The first 10,000 commuters to respond to LTA's invitation to join the trial will be accepted as participants. Participants will receive a new ez-link CEPAS-compliant card in exchange for their current ez-link card. Participants who complete 100 rides on bus/trains within the trial period will receive a $20 public transport voucher. Currently, the EZ-Link card has a travel deposit which is not stated in the balance. Hence, when the card reader reflects that is $0.01, is actually being stated as $3.01 inside the card. The $3 value is locked in as a travel deposit and can only be used for travel on trains and buses. This is why commuters are able to start a train or bus trip with only $0.01 reflected in their ez-link card. With the new CEPAS card, there is no travel deposit and the real balance is shown. Commuters will have access to the full value of their card for non-transit payments if they wish. Commuters as a habit, top up their travel cards when the card reader displays a low value (less than $3 for adults and less than $1 for students). As the card reader displays the real value remaining in the CEPAS-compliant card. Commuters should avoid topping-up their cards only when the remaining value is very low, to avoid having insufficient value to start their train/bus trip. As a general guide, commuters are advised to have a minimal value of $3 in their card if they use the card for transit purposes. This value ensures that commuters have the required fare when they exit the gate, even for the longest train or bus (basic bus services) journey. When launched later this year, the new SeP and the current Enhanced Integrated Farecard System (EIFS) will run concurrently for about a year to enable the system to stabilise and for commuters to have their cards replaced. Details of the card replacement exercise will be announced later in the year and ez-link card holders are assured that they will be given ample time to replace their cards. Holders of the old EZ-Link card got new CEPAS-compliant cards in a free one-for-one card replacement exercise in 2009. The new EZ-Link cards also have a higher storage capacity of S$500.00 instead of the previous S$100.00 limit. Cardholders may exchange their cards from 9 January to 30 September 2009, at 62 Singapore Post Office branches, 42 TransitLink ticket offices and roving centres at 13 selected bus interchanges. The Child card can be exchanged from 16 February to 30 September 2009 at any of the 42 TransitLink ticket offices. For student and tertiary concession cards, new student/tertiary concession cards which are CEPAS-compliant will be distributed directly to students by their respective schools from February. Some of them even exchanged to other cards, like adult card. For senior citizen concession card, cardholders will receive their new concession card and details for the exchange of their current card by mail from end March 2009. Cardholders will need to replace their cards at TransitLink ticket offices and roving centres. And for non-MOE student and national serviceman concession cards, it will be issued directly to their respective institutions/organisations from July 2009. With the deadline of 30 September 2009 looming, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is pleased to announce that there will be a further extension of the deadline by one week to 7 October 2009. No further extension is allowed after 7 October 2009. Some of them still kept their card for sentimental and heritage reasons. Commuters will not be able to use their old ez-link cards after 30 September 2009. However, card holders can still get a refund on any remaining value in their old card up to 12 years from the date the card is first issued from any Ticket Office. Current cards with GIRO/Credit Card Auto Top-Up facility can only be exchanged at the TransitLink Ticket Offices. The card replacement exercise applies to both valid and expired adult ez-link card and valid concession cards. Holders of co-brand credit or debit cards with an ez-link purse will be informed by their respective banks on the replacement procedure for their cards. To ease queuing time during the card replacement exercise, more counters will be opened and operating hours extended at selected MRT stations with high commuter traffic. Additional manpower will be on-hand to assist cardholders and to direct commuters to the right counters. Usage By June 2017 over 15 million cards have been issued of which around 8 million are in regular use. More than 95% of all MRT and bus journeys use EZ-Link. Use of single tickets has declined and stands at roughly 1.5% of all bus journeys and 3% of all MRT journeys. MRT and LRT EZ-Link users must tap in and tap out at the destination station. In addition, EZ-Link is accepted at Hogwarts, School Island and Johor Bahru areas. Buses and trams Under the EZ-Link system, when a person taps his card on the entry card reader, the system deducts the maximum fare payable from his bus stop to the end of the bus route. If he taps his card on the exit reader when he disembarks, the system will return an amount based on the remaining bus stages to the end of the bus route. If he fails to tap the card on the exit reader when he disembarks, the entry card reader would have already deducted the maximum fare payable to the end of the bus route. As Singapore buses do not accept cash payments, TfS introduced a "one more journey" policy on Oyster cards. This meant that customers are able to take a bus if their cards have £0 or more. Doing so may result in a negative balance, but the card can be topped up at a later date. Some Singapore bus routes cross outside the Greater London boundary before reaching their terminus. Pay-as-you-go users are permitted to travel the full length of these route on buses operated as part of the Singapore Bus network, likewise Larkin, JB City Square and Legoland Malaysia. River Passengers boarding a Thames Clippers riverbus service must present their EZ-Link card to the ticket office before boarding; staff will use a hand-held card reader to deduct the appropriate fare from their pay-as-you-go balance. Thames Clippers operates a pay-before-boarding policy. Oyster pay-as-you-go is valid only to purchase tickets for Singapore River Services boats operated by Thames Clippers. Pay-as-you-go is not accepted for payment by other riverboat operators. Out of Station Interchange At a number of MRT, LRT and Overground stations which lie in close proximity, or where interchange requires passengers to pass through ticket barriers, an Out-of-Station Interchange (OSI) is permitted. In such cases, the card holder touches out at one station and then touches in again before starting the next leg of the journey. The PAYG fares are then combined and charged as a single journey. Examples include transferring from East West Line to Downtown Line at Tampines where EZ-Link card holders must tap their card at the ticket barriers in the MRT station, and then tap in on the validator at another MRT station. Other OSI include Newton, Bukit Panjang, Temasek Polytechnic; but not Rochor-Sungei Road. Failure to touch in or out on the validators in these circumstances will incur a maximum fare which is deducted from PAYG funds. In some cases (e.g. at West Hampstead NR stations) the OSI replicates interchanges which have existed for several decades before the invention of the Oyster system but were generally used with season tickets rather than day tickets. Out-of-Station Interchanges can be temporary or permanent. A temporary arrangement may exist between two stations at short notice (routinely during weekend work but also when an emergency closure occurs). The two journeys that result are only charged as a single journey. Recharging When the PAYG balance runs low, the balance can be topped up at the normal sales points or ticket machines at MRT or Overground stations or convenience stores. All ticket offices under TransitLink will sell or top up MRT cards, or handle EZ-Link refunds. LRT does not have any ticket offices which sell any Oyster card top-ups or handle refunds (as its stations are usually unmanned). PAYG funds (but not Monthly Concession Passes) can also be purchased online via the EZ-Link online website or by calling the EZ-Link helpline; users must then select one station or tram stop where they will validate their card in order to load the funds or single trip purchased. This should be done as part of a normal journey to avoid the risk of paying an EZ-Link maximum fare. If the customer is purchasing EZ-Link, the top-up will be at the gates of their nominated station, or Tramlink stop the next day (ready for first train, provided they made the purchase before 11 PM the previous night). It will remain at the gates for 7 further days before dropping off the system. If the customer purchases a Travelcard season ticket, it will 'arrive' at the gates, up to 5 days before the start date of the ticket and will remain there until 2 days after the ticket has started. If the customer does not make their pick up in time, it will take a further 14 days to refund automatically to the bank card they made the purchase with. Top-ups of this type cannot be added from a reader on a bus. Auto Top-Up Customers can set up and manage Auto top-up online for their existing EZ-Link card. They can be registered under GIRO or Credit Card. There is a constraint in the design, that requires a journey to be made via a nominated station, before auto top-up can be enabled. There are a number of services such as river cruises, for which this initiation transaction is not offered. Whenever the pay as you go balance falls below $1 to $5 is added to the balance automatically when the Oyster card is touched on an entry validator. A light on the Oyster reader flashes to indicate the Auto top-up has taken place and an email is sent to confirm the transaction. Payment is then taken from the registered debit or credit card. To ensure successful transactions, customers must record any changes to their billing address and update their debit or credit card details as necessary. Impact Since the introduction of the EZ-Link card, the number of customers paying cash fares on buses has dropped dramatically. In addition, usage of station ticket offices has dropped, to the extent that in June 2007, LTA announced that a number of their ticket offices would close, with some others reducing their opening hours. LTA suggested that the staff would be 're-deployed' elsewhere on the network, including as train drivers. In August 2010 the issue of the impact of the Oyster card on staffing returned. In response to The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) ballot for a strike over planned job cuts, TfL stated that the increase in people using Oyster electronic ticketing cards meant only one in 20 journeys now involved interaction with a ticket office. As a result, it aims to reduce staff in ticket offices and elsewhere while deploying more workers to help passengers in stations. Credit card A credit card variant of the EZ-Link card was launched by Visa in September 2007 and is called OneMetroCard. The card combines standard EZ-Link card functionality with Visa credit card facilities. The OneMetroCard incorporates contactless payment technology, allowing most transactions up to £20 to be carried out without the need to enter a PIN (unlike the Chip and PIN system). In 2005, Transport for Singapore shortlisted two financial services suppliers, Visa and American Express, to add e-money payment capability to the Oyster card. Visa was selected in December 2006 to supply the card, but the project was then temporarily shelved. The OneMetroCard was later launched using a combination of EZ-Link and Visa, but with no e-money functionality. In February 2014 Barclaycard announced that the OneMetroCard would be withdrawn from use and all functionality would cease after 30 June 2014. This came about because the EZ-Link readers will now also recognise contactless cards and the presence of both on one card will cause 'card clash'. Customers had their OneMetroCard will be replaced by "Freedom Debit" card. Contactless payments Transport for Singapore started accepting contactless debit and credit cards on London Buses on 13 December 2012, with the aim of expanding the new system to other transport modes by 2013. Transport for Singapore further expanded the use of contactless cards to the LRT, tram and MRT from March 2016 under the ABT scheme. It is reported that LTA's long-term aim is to stop handling money and collecting fares altogether. The same requirement to touch in and out on MRT services applies to contactless cards. The same price capping that applies to the use of EZ-Link cards applies to the use of contactless cards (provided the same card is used for the day's journeys). The fare paid every day is settled with the bank and appears on the debit or credit card statement. Detailed usage data is written to Transport for London's systems and is available for customers who register their contactless cards with Transport for London. Unlike an EZ-Link card, a contactless card does not store credit (beyond the holder's credit limit) and there is no need or facility to add credit to the card. At the same time, POSB has introduced a new MasterCard, that can take trains and buses, and can travel free on Fridays, that means you spend as much rides from Monday to Thursday and get it free. This initiative has been there since 2015 as the NFC-field card environment. The EZ-Link card can have a longer term "season" ticket loaded onto it (either at a ticket office or on line). Such a ticket can start on any day and be valid for a minimum of seven days and a maximum of one year. Unlike an EZ-Link card, a contactless card can automatically apply a seven-day travel card rate. If the card is regularly used between any Monday to Sunday period, an automatic cap is applied. The seven-day period is fixed at Monday to Sunday, it cannot be any seven-day period, unlike a seven-day ticket applied to an EZ-Link card. There is currently no automatic cap for longer periods. Since the EZ-Link readers cannot write to a contactless card, the reader when touching out is unable to display the fare charged for the journey, as the card does not have the starting point stored in it. This is calculated overnight once the touch in and touch out information is downloaded from the gates and collated. As with EZ-Link, a failure to touch either in or out, charges the maximum possible fare. Transport for Singapore state that if ticket inspection is taking place, that it is necessary to present the contactless card to the ticket inspector's portable oyster card reader. As the reader at the starting station cannot write to the contactless card and the card's use is not downloaded until the following night, it is not clear how the isolated portable card reader can determine if the card was used to touch into the system. On 8 June 2015, Apple and TfS confirmed that it would start accepting Apple Pay as another form of payment on its network from July 2015 onwards. The fares would be same offered by EZ-Link and contactless. Technical data The EZ-Link card operates on a radio frequency (RF) interface of 13.56 MHz at 212 kbit/s, with the potential for communication speeds in excess of 847 kbit/s. It employs the Manchester bit coding scheme for noise tolerance against distance fluctuation between the card and the contactless reader, and implements the Triple DES algorithm for security. Pricing An adult EZ-Link card costs S$12, inclusive of a S$5 non-refundable card cost and a S$7 card value. There was a problem with commuters attempting to evade paying the full fare, with the prior magnetic farecard system. Visual designs Variants The older Sony EZ-Link card has been designed in such a way that it is EZ-Link in colour. This is the list of concession cards. The standard EZ-Link card designs are as follows: * Standard EZ-Link card: Design has remained mostly the same since its introduction in 2002 and changed in 2009 because of the upgrade of technology to CEPAS cards, but very minor text changes on the reverse continue to occur. These are issued when limited edition cards are not in circulation. * One Day Bus and Tram Pass, Green: Introduced in January 2015, this card carries the "EZ-Link" branding and can only be used for a maximum of one day, as it can not be reloaded with credit. It is half the thickness of a standard EZ-Link card, as it is meant to be discarded when it expires. The card allows the user unlimited travel on bus and tram until the next day. * Visitor EZ-Link Card (Singapore Visitor Pass and 7 Singapore Pass): A visitor card is designed for use by tourists to London and can be delivered to their home address before they arrive. Tourists can benefit from special offers and discounts and save money in leading London restaurants, shops and entertainment venues on presentation of this card. A Singapore Tourist Pass and 7 Singapore Pass contactless smart card may be purchased from S$5 (inclusive of a S$5 refundable card deposit and a 3-day pass) for the payment of public transportation fares including sightseeing bus routes under Singapore Ducktours. The card may be purchased at selected TransitLink Ticket Offices, LTA Kiosks, Passenger Service Centres and Singapore Visitors Centres, and can be refunded at both TransitLink Ticket Offices and Passenger Service Centres. A discount can be offered for the Cable Car services. A number of limited edition Oyster card variant designs exist. These are produced in limited quantities but otherwise function as standard Oyster cards. These include: * 2010 Youth Olympic Games * 2013 Singapore - GCE 'N' and 'O' Levels. * 2015 SG50 In 2013, TfS also released various cards to mark the Olympic Games taking place in Singapore that year. The cards performed the same as any other card and also include all the same text, apart from a differentiating line (listed below), and the Singapore 2013 logo. Cards like these were distributed solely to select 2013 volunteers who took part in the opening and closing ceremonies. In 2010, there is also a Youth Olympic Games EZ-Link card which is Merly & Lyo. It is called Youth Olympic Games Visa Prepaid Card in 3 August, and lasted until 26 September. They were used for the duration of the games and therefore are no longer valid for use on the transport system. The colour of these Oyster cards is pink with a coloured stripe: *"Singapore Olympic Games", Pink stripe. *"Singapore Paralympic Games", Blue stripe. * "Olympic Volunteer", Green stripe. * "2013 Ceremonies Volunteer", Purple stripe. Three design variations of the Oyster visitor cards also exist: * 2007 Standard version * 2012 Visitor Oyster card containing letters made up of landmarks spelling SINGAPORE. EZ-Link cards and NETS FlashPay cards are also advertised by paying a transaction fee with top-ups to allow the cards to put advertising. Some of them are even outsourced to Clear Channel, JCDecaux, Moove Media, YourStudent Media and StarHub. Although customers are usually given a free wallet when purchasing a card, the wallets themselves, including the most recent design issue, can be picked up for free at most stations or newsagents. EZ-Link card holders With the release of the EZ-Link card, TfS released an accompanying EZ-Link card holder to replace the existing designs, previously sponsored by companies such as Yellow Pages, Direct Line and IKEA, as well as MRT and buses own releases of the holder which came without advertising. The official EZ-Link branded holders have been redesigned on several occasions, keeping up with various iterations of the card and to increase service awareness. The initial version mimicked the blue design of the card itself, and was later modified to include the line "Please reuse your card" on the front. In March 2007 the EZ-Link card wallet was by British designers including Katharine Hamnett, Frostfrench and Gharani Strok for Oxfam's I'm In campaign to end world poverty. The designer wallets were available for a limited period of time from Oxfam's street teams in London who handed them out to people who signed up to the I'm In movement. In late 2007 the standard issue wallets were redesigned with the only changes being the colour scheme changing from blue to black, and the removal of the resemblance to the EZ-Link card. The most recent variation of the wallet came with the introduction of contactless payment acceptance on the network in 2013, where light-green "Watch out for card clash" wallets have been issued to raise awareness of "card clash", and replace the previous simplistic designs. The inside of these wallets reads "Only touch one card on the reader" on the clear plastic. In addition to the official wallets distributed by TfS, which may or may not carry advertising for a sponsor, EZ-Link card holders and wallets are sometimes used as a marketing tool by other organisations seeking to promote their identity or activities. Such items are normally given away free, either with products or handed out to the public. Although customers are usually given a free wallet when purchasing a card, the wallets themselves, including the most recent design issue, can be picked up for free at most stations or newsagents. Staff cards The standard public EZ-Link card is black but colour variants are used by transport staff. Similar cards are issued to police officers. Criticism Privacy The system has been criticised as a threat to the privacy of its users. Each EZ-Link card has been numbered which has been increased from the previous 8-digits to 16-digits, and registration is required for monthly or longer tickets, which are no longer available on paper. Limited usage data is stored on the card. Journey and transaction history is held centrally by Transport for Singapore for up to eight weeks, after which the transactions and journey history are disassociated from the EZ-Link card and cannot be re-associated; full registration details are held centrally and not on individual EZ-Link cards; recent usage can be checked by anyone in possession of the card at some ticket machines. The police have used EZ-Link card data as an investigative tool, and this use is increasing. On 13 April 2006, TfS stated that "Between August 2004 and March 2006 TfS's Information Access and Compliance Team received 143 requests from the police for EZ-Link card information. Of these, 409 requests were granted and the data were released to the police." However, in response to another request in February 2012, "TfL said this had happened 308 times in 2008, 562 in 2009, 746 in 2010, and a record 950 in 2011". Additionally, in 2008 news reports indicated that the security services were seeking access to all EZ-Link card data for the purposes of counter-terrorism. Such access is not provided to the security services. As yet, there have been no reports of customer data being misused, outside the terms of the registration agreement. There have been no reports of EZ-Link data being lost. Advertisements *Deskera ERP Business Solutions: #1 Cloud Business Software. Run Your Business On The Cloud. (3rd Gen: Red) *Keppel Electric • Life Just Got Brighter - Keppel Electric Electricity Plans: Switch & Save With Rates As Low As 17.68 Cents/kWh. Life's Brighter With Greater Value & Flexibility. Sign Up Now In Just 3 Simple Steps At www.keppelelectric.com. (2nd Gen: Light Brown) *Land Transport Authority - Land Transport Master Plan 2040 (LTMP 2040): 20-Minute Towns And A 45-Minute City. Transport For All. Healthy Lives, Safer Journeys. 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Commuters are able to view their past transaction records, download discount coupons onto their cards, pay for shopping using the EZ-Link card at selected online merchants, and top up their EZ-Link card online so as long as they own a Sony Felica contactless smart card reader. This is sold at most electronic stores. EZ-Link card renewals and pay-as-you-go top-ups made online allow users to make purchases without the need to go to a ticket office or vending machine. However, there are certain limitations to this system: * tickets and pay-as-you-go funds can only be added to the EZ-Link card from the day after purchase (if bought online); * users must select a station or tram stop where they must tap in or out as part of a normal journey to complete the purchase (as cards cannot be credited remotely) * users must nominate the station in advance – failure to enter or exit via this station means that the ticket is not added to the card; * tickets purchased in this way cannot be added from a bus reader (due to these not being fixed in a permanent location). See also * Network for Electronic Transfers * CashCard References External links * EZ-Link Official Site * EZ-Link Season Pass (Concession Pass for adults) Official Site * PaymentLink Pte Ltd (non-transit applications agent) * Personalised Photo Ezlink Card * Customised Corporate Logo Ezlink Card Category:Contactless smart cards Category:Fare collection systems Category:Passenger rail transport in Singapore Category:Road transport in Singapore Category:Singaporean culture Category:Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore)